


Kindred Spirits

by caerynlae



Category: Scorpion (TV 2014)
Genre: can be read as either strong friendship or hints of more
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-01
Updated: 2017-06-01
Packaged: 2018-11-07 15:24:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11061801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caerynlae/pseuds/caerynlae
Summary: It didn’t matter if the rest of the world didn’t understand as long as there was one other who does.





	Kindred Spirits

For their current mission, they will have to attend an upscale party at a manor house tonight. They have the day to work on and prepare an appropriate plan and thus the whole team assembles in the main area of the garage and they start planning.

* * *

Another one of those stupid comments from Toby. Infuriated, Happy and Walter roll their eyes. It’s completely in sync but they don’t realise that. Then they look at each other. It’s that one look that they have reserved for whenever people are unnecessarily emotional or behave illogically or are otherwise just plain annoying. It’s that one look with which they tell each other, _you are not alone, I think the same as you._

* * *

Walter’s idea seems crazy to all the team members. He is exasperated, why can’t they see that it is a _calculated_ risk and their best chance at succeeding at the mission? He glances over at Happy. She saw the same pattern, he can tell from looking at her eyes. A whole conversation passes with that one look, it takes just a second. But now he knows there is one team member on his side. She will be the deciding factor in helping him convince the others. Walter starts explaining his idea and its merits again. But he only makes it halfway through the sentence before Happy picks up his train of thought and finishes the explanation in her own words. Realizing that Happy fully understood and supports the plan, the others slowly come around. Crisis averted. No one notices the grateful look Walter sends Happy’s way. Happy acknowledges it with a quick touch, her hand briefly resting on Walter’s lower back while no one else is looking.

* * *

Paige reminds them to show more empathy when they are at the party later. Doesn’t she understand uttering meaningless words - Paige calls them pleasantries, detracts time from the mission? It is a completely illogical move. After all, they were hired to complete said mission, not for idle chitchat. But Paige patiently explains that they need to do this to blend in efficiently. Efficiency they understand, even if they’ll never truly understand why these pleasantries are necessary. But it is exactly for this kind of coaching why they hired Paige in the first place, so they concede.

When Paige finally leaves them alone, they both stride off to Happy’s latest project. While Happy works away, they discuss Walter’s latest algorithm idea to improve the image recognition system in self-driving cars using convolutional neural networks and a novel gradient optimization technique that he came up with. Glad that they don’t have to pretend and fake when it’s just the two of them.

* * *

They arrive at the party and for the better part of the evening they must pretend to socialise. Not drawing unwanted attention to themselves, while waiting for the golden moment to execute their plan which will fulfil the mission. So they spend the evening exchanging meaningless drivel with people they never met, never will again and don’t care about. Paige and Toby called it small talk and it’s used to connect to new acquaintances on a first emotional level. Happy and Walter call it sanctimonious and a waste of time. But the job needs to be done, so they try their best.

* * *

At the end, mission successfully accomplished, both Happy and Walter feel completely exhausted. Toby, Paige and even Sylvester keep chattering about the party and all the people they met and the food they tried, which songs they liked best and the fun they had.

Happy disappears behind her workstation, hammering away; it’s calming. She can’t believe that one _dimwit_ attorney, or whatever he said he did, questioned her expertise with regards to the 1967 Porsche engine. When Toby’s expertise had been insulted a few minutes prior, he just conceded to his interlocutor. He later explained this was the appropriate reaction at such an event. That you couldn’t unduly upset someone without drawing attention. It was better to pretend. She tried to copy him but the moron’s claims about the 1967 Porsche were just so infuriating. So she just spun around and left the idiot standing there. That’s the best she could do. She was proud of herself for not starting a fight. Standing there and agreeing, like Toby did, that was not possible.

Walter powers up his computer and works on coding the new objective function and its gradient for his algorithm that he formalized in his mind while some person or other was chattering away at him. Whoever it was didn’t seem to notice that Walter just nodded or made affirmative noises to whatever was said precisely every 27 seconds. That was the optimal timing that Walter had calculated just prior while watching Paige interact with someone she had just met. Walter was reasonably sure that the guy never noticed anything amiss. In fact, he seemed flattered with Walter’s undivided attention. Apparently usually people didn’t let him explain his idea in detail. That parting line was the only piece of conversation Walter actually registered.

Finally, the other team members leave for the evening. Grateful for the peace and quiet, Walter and Happy keep working in companionable silence. Eventually, Walter fetches two drinks from the kitchen. He sits down on the sofa and closes his eyes. Happy had stopped hammering and now makes her way over. She sits down next to him. Together they recharge their batteries after all the exhausting pretending and being around people and too much noise and too many visual cues. There were no words necessary. In fact, if either of them had talked, the other would’ve gotten up and left to be able to recharge in peace. But they knew each other that well because they knew themselves that well. They were so similar it was sometimes scary.

Eventually they both drift off to sleep, emotionally exhausted from the party and physically from the mission and the by now late hour. Sometime during the night, Happy’s head ends up resting on Walter’s shoulder and Walter’s hand wraps around Happy’s shoulder.

Because they are such closed off people, most never realized the depth of understanding that exists between them. Not even the other team members. They were kindred spirits. There was a special kind of chemistry between them. They knew, whatever happened, there would always be one person that would understand. It didn’t matter if the rest of the world didn’t understand as long as there was one other who does.

* * *

Sylvester is usually the first to arrive on a morning. He likes to take the bus before it gets too crowded. When he walks into the garage and sees where Walter and Happy have fallen asleep, he softly smiles. He walks into the kitchen and prepares a pot of coffee. He knows Walter and Happy always need some first thing in the morning. He is loud on purpose. By the time he walks back into the main area of the garage, Walter and Happy have disappeared upstairs to the loft to get ready for the day.

They come back down several minutes apart, gratefully accepting the coffee Sylvester made. All three are working away happily by the time the other team members arrive, no one else any the wiser.


End file.
